WASHINGTON — There are reports that a government panel is poised to recommend against routine PSA blood tests to screen for prostate cancer.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force analyzed previous research, and a draft report concludes there's little if any reduction in deaths from routine screening but possible harm, including unnecessary surgery and other treatment. The draft report was obtained by The Cancer Letter newsletter and is scheduled to be published Tuesday.

PSA screening already was controversial, with groups including the American Cancer Society recommending that men consider the pros and cons before deciding. The test can't tell the difference between an enlarged prostate or cancer, and screening often detects small tumors that are too slow-growing to be deadly.

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Video: Prostate exam may not be good screening tool

Transcript of: Prostate exam may not be good screening tool

BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor:We're back, as we mentioned, with a potential game changer in health news. And here is the headline from
The New York Times
website; got our attention tonight. Dr.
Nancy Snyderman
, our chief medical editor, joins us here in our studio. "US panel advises against routine prostate test." What is this story about?

Dr. NANCY SNYDERMAN reporting:This is a little bit of a controversy that's spinning -- been spinning around in the medical arenas for quite some time, the risk benefit ratio of that routine
blood test
that men are so accustomed to. So now it's expected that that is going to play out with the
US Preventative Task Force
. On Tuesday it is expected that this force -- this is the same group that suggested changing mammography guidelines a couple of years ago. It is expected that they will issue new recommendations that that
PSA
test that men routinely take to check for
prostate cancer
may not be a good
screening test
at all and should not be

routinely done. And here's why:The concern is that this test can be elevated even with benign problems like inflammation or an enlarged prostate, and then once you have that elevated test, that leads you to a biopsy, unnecessary treatment. As we talk about economics,
Brian
, it comes back to not hurting the patient, not spending undue money.

SNYDERMAN:No, it's really a humbling thing and, I think, one of those things that we have to talk about in life, that there is death. And no doubt that once
Steve Jobs
got his diagnosis, he knew the inevitability of all of this, yet he had a very rare form of the disease that only occurs in about 5 percent of the 43,000 cases of
pancreatic cancer
that occur every year in this country. He was treated with surgery, followed up with a liver transplant in
2008
, and he survived in a little more than seven years, which is really way against the odds of other people. And a lot of people would say,
Brian
, not only great
medical treatment
, but he had this passion for work.